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BeetleFacts Mailbag: Letters to the Editor

Here at BeetleFacts, we take pride in listening to you, dear readers, to insure you get the highest quality beetle information available. We read and personally respond to each and every message the arrives at BFHQ, be they paper or epaper. To help streamline the feedback process, here are a few select responses to some of the more common inquires we’ve received. If you plan on contacting us (at beetlefacts@gmail.com) please refer to these; someone else has probably already asked. Enjoy!

“You’re bad at writing.”

-Blaine, Portsmouth, NH

Sadly, a high percentage of the emails we’ve received either contain this sentence, or consist solely of it. Every contributing author at BeetleFacts has a TOEFL Score of at least 35, and many of us approach 50. My own father described my reading comprehension as ‘adequate,’ so if you wish to continue to use BeetleFacts as a source of premium beetle content, please provide feedback with more direct suggestions for how we can improve your user experience.

“I study the Heteroceridae for my dissertation research. Your article on my study system was confusing and factually inaccurate. I wish you hadn’t written it.”

Franco, Vancouver, BC

Science, as an approximation of the natural world devised by imperfect human observers, is necessarily subjective. Did I really hear a heterocerid scream in fear when I harassed it with a spray bottle full of grasshopper blood and grain alcohol? I believe I heard it scream, which makes my observation a fundamentally scientific one. Regardless, we at BeetleFacts respectfully disagree with your assessment and are confident that our research will be borne out by the test of time.

“My 4th grader thinks you guys are hilarious! He gets so excited when I let him watch the Discovery Channel, and he can’t stop talking about how he wants to be a Mythbuster when he grows up. Thanks for everything you do!”